Analysis and Experiment of Cutting Mechanical Parameters for Caragana Korshinskii (C.K.) Branches

In order to investigate the cutting mechanical characteristics of Caragana Korshinskii (C.K.) branches and explore the optimal combination of cutting parameters to support the subsequent equipment development, this paper explores the relationship between branch diameter D, average cutting speed v, wedge angle β, slip cutting angle α, cutting height h, cutting gap t, moisture content M and peak cutting force by using a homemade swing-cut branch cutting test bench with peak cutting force of branches as the target value under unsupported and supported cutting methods, respectively, through single-factor tests. Based on the single-factor test, v, β, α and t were selected as the test factors, and a multi-factor test was conducted with the peak cutting force as the target. Test result: The best combination of unsupported cutting in the range of multi-factor test is v for 3.315 m·s−1, β for 20°, α for 20°, when the peak cutting force is 95.690 N. Supported cutting multi-factor test range to get the best combination of v for 3.36 m·s−1, β for 20°, α for 20°, t for 1.38 mm, when the peak cutting force is 53.082 N. The errors of the predicted peak cutting force and the measured peak cutting force of the obtained model were 1.3% and 3.9%, respectively, which prove that the cutting parameters were optimized reliably. This research can provide a theoretical basis for subsequent development the C.K. harvesting equipment.

Infrared Laser Application to Wood Cutting

While lasers are widely used across various industries, including woodworking, few studies to date have addressed the issue of cutting fresh wood. In the present investigation, wood stemming from fresh tree branches was cut at different laser powers and beam travel speeds. A fiber laser and a CO2 laser were used for the research. The cellular structures of the cut surfaces were examined, with some of them found to be covered with a layer of compacted, charred cells. This may be a favorable phenomenon, preventing the invasion of pathogens via the wounds caused by laser beam branch cutting in nurseries, plantations, and orchards.

PENGARUH KEBERADAAN AKAR ADVENTIF DAN MEDIA TANAM TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN STEK CABANG BAMBU BETUNG (Dendrocalamus asper Schult Backer ex Heyne) Influence of Adventitious Roots and Planting Media on Growth of Branch Cutting of Betung Bamboo

The need of bamboo raw materials, betung bamboo for instance, keeps increasing in line with the rising rate of population growth and science development. Therefore, stands of bamboo clumps with sustainable productivity and quality, are absolutely required. One of betung bamboo’s characteristics is presence of adventitious roots in branches of bamboo culm. The problem is that many of such branches often have dry adventitious roots which are brown in color. Based on such condition, research of the effect of presence of dry adventitious roots, need to be conducted, as well as the effect of growth media, on the growth of bamboo branch cuttings. The research objective is to examine the effect of bamboo branches with dry adventitious roots and planting media on growth of betung bamboo’s branch cuttings. The media used are soil, rice husk charcoal and compost. The experiment which used factorial RAK design showed that planting media significantly affected leaf numbers, whereas adventitious roots had significant effect on all measured parameters, including shoot length, shoot numbers, leaf numbers, oven dry weight of roots, and survival percentage. Media with the highest leaf numbers were mixture of soil and rice husk charcoal.Keywords: adventitious root, Dendrocalamus asper, planting media, branch cutting

Cutting tree branches to pick OTUs: a novel method of provisional species delimitation

Delimitation of species is crucial in all studies of biodiversity, its geographic patterns and evolutionary dynamics as well as in the corresponding conservation applications. In practice, operational taxonomic units (OTUs) are often used as provisional surrogates of the species, whose evidence-based and robust delimitation requires too extensive data and complex analyses. The novel method for this provisional species delimitation is suggested, which uses any phylogenetic tree with meaningful branch lengths as an input and delimits OTUs on it by identification of branches whose removal significantly changes structure of the tree. Such branches are considered to reflect interspecific differentiation that is assumed generally more erratic than intraspecific branching. It is called branch-cutting method as it evaluates structural importance of the branch by its cutting (shrinking to zero length) and inspecting impact of this operation on the average pairwise distances between tree tips. Tree tips can be also constrained to be either conspecific or heterospecific which allows the method to achieve more robust and informed delimitations and to focus on particular phylogenetic scale. Usefulness of the method is demonstrated on four empirical examples and comparison with similar methods is performed.

Influence of NAA and coconut water with variation of soaking duration on the growth of yellow bamboo branch cutting

Setiawati T, Keliat APR, Budiono R, Partasasmita R, Iskandar J. 2018. Influence of NAA and coconut water with variation of soaking duration on the growth of yellow bamboo branch cutting. Nusantara Bioscience 10: 178-182. Yellow bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris Schrad Ex. var. Striata) is one kind of bamboo used for industrial and household raw materials. Yellow bamboo propagation with branch cuttings has relatively low percentage of growth. To increase the growing success of yellow bamboo branch cuttings can be used growth regulators substance, such as NAA and coconut water. This study aimed to obtain the best combination of NAA and coconut water with the soaking duration in the growth of yellow bamboo branch cuttings. The study was conducted using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) of 6 × 3 factorial arrangement with five replications. The first factor was the combination of NAA and coconut water (CW), which consisted of six levels, namely 100% CW, 20% NAA + 80% CW, 40% NAA + 60% CW, 60% NAA + 40% CW, 80% NAA + 20% CW and 100% NAA. The second factor was the soaking duration which consists of three levels, namely 12 h, 24 h, and 36 h. Parameters observed included shoot emerging time, shoot number, shoot length, leaf area, root number and root length. The data obtained were analyzed using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) α=5%. The results showed that the combination of 80% NAA + 20% CW gave the best yellow bamboo branch cuttings growth with an average shoot length of 1.44 cm, leaf area 41.29 cm2, root number 42.87 and root length 23.70 cm. The interaction of 80% NAA + 20% CW with soaking duration of 36 h resulted in average the fastest shoot emerging time of 2.02 days after planting.

Assessment of Plant Diversity of a Seasonal Tropical Wetland Forest Ecosystem in Bangladesh

The quantitative analysis of plant diversity was explored on a seasonal tropical wetland forest ecosystem at Ratargul Swamp Forest. The simple random sampling protocol was adopted, and 30 plots (10 m×10 m) each with one subplot (2 m×2 m) was investigated for the vegetation survey. The study found about 539 individuals of 48 species belonging to 36 families. Poaceae was the dominant among all family. The upper (trees with all size) and lower (shrubs, herbs, climbers, grasses) stratum was dominated by Pongamia pinnata and Clinogyne dicotoma, respectively. The taxonomic diversity was moderate in both lower and upper strata. The value of floristic quality index was calculated at 19.92, which represents moderate vegetative quality. The outcome also revealed the disturbances which influenced the plant community, mostly due to branch cutting by human (<30%). The findings will be useful for the conservation and scientific management of biodiversity as a hotspot in seasonal tropical wetland forest system.Keywords: Biodiversity, conservatism, disturbance, hotspot, wetland

Conservation of bamboo species in a mini urban ecosystem of Bangladesh

A bambusetum conserving all bamboo species of Bangladesh was established at Bangladesh Forest Research Institute campus, Chittagong. The Silviculture Genetics Division conducted the research study. The purpose of the study was to collect, centralize and conserved all bamboo species of Bangladesh in a setum. The planted propagules of various species include offsets, part-clump, branch cutting, seed and seedling and tissue culture plantlets. So far 33 species of bamboos have been collected from different parts of the country as well as introduced from China and Thailand. The total land area of the bambusetum is approximately 2.0 hectares. It is the only bamboo germplasm centre of the country, which includes all bamboo species. It serves as a bamboo information center for the scientists, academicians, students and visitors as well.J. Biodivers. Conserv. Bioresour. Manag. 2017, 3(2): 35-42